Application of physiological understanding in soybean improvement. I. Understanding phenological constraints to adaptation and yield potential

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Contents Vol 62(1)

doi:10.1071/CP10289

Plant Sciences, Sustainable Farming Systems & Food Quality

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Protocols in ecological and environmental plant physiology

Application of physiological understanding in soybean improvement. I. Understanding phenological constraints to adaptation and yield potential

R. J. Lawn ^A ^C and A. T. James ^B

^A Tropical Crop Science Unit, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811; and CSIRO Plant Industry, Australian Tropical Science & Innovation Precinct, Townsville, Qld 4814, Australia.
^B CSIRO Plant Industry, Queensland Biosciences Precinct, 306 Carmody Rd, St Lucia, Qld 4067, Australia.
^C Corresponding author. Emails: robert.lawn@jcu.edu.au; bob.lawn@csiro.au

Crop and Pasture Science 62(1) 1-11 http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/CP10289
Submitted: 2 September 2010 Accepted: 12 November 2010 Published: 12 January 2011





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Abstract

The purpose of this paper and its companion¹ is to describe how, in eastern Australia, soybean improvement, in terms of both breeding and agronomy, has been informed and influenced over the past four decades by physiological understanding of the environmental control of phenology. This first paper describes how initial attempts to grow soybean in eastern Australia, using varieties and production practices from the southern USA, met with limited success due to large variety × environment interaction effects on seed yield. In particular, there were large variety × location, variety × sowing date, and variety × sowing date × density effects. These various interaction effects were ultimately explained in terms of the effects of photo-thermal environment on the phenology of different varieties, and the consequences for radiation interception, dry matter production, harvest index, and seed yield. This knowledge enabled the formulation of agronomic practices to optimise sowing date and planting arrangement to suit particular varieties, and underpinned the establishment of commercial production in south-eastern Queensland in the early 1970s. It also influenced the establishment and operation over the next three decades of several separate breeding programs, each targeting phenological adaptation to specific latitudinal regions of eastern Australia. This paper also describes how physiological developments internationally, particularly the discovery of the long juvenile trait and to a lesser extent the semi-dwarf ideotype, subsequently enabled an approach to be conceived for broadening the phenological adaptation of soybeans across latitudes and sowing dates. The application of this approach, and its outcomes in terms of varietal improvement, agronomic management, and the structure of the breeding program, are described in the companion paper.

Additional keywords:breeding, genotype × environment interaction, lodging, long juvenile trait, photoperiodism.

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